When we announced the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 as ‘selfie’ earlier this week, we knew the word had international relevance (one of the reasons why we thought it merited the title of Word of the Year), but we didn’t know it had interplanetary reach until we saw this tweet from @MarsCuriosity showing […]

As OUP’s lexicographers go about our quiet work, occasionally a novel word, spied in a newspaper, a post, or a tweet, catches our fancy. “Possible WOTY?!!!” we might email to a colleague, anticipating the year’s end. When we go back through those old emails months later, it is sometimes difficult to remember what inspired such […]

Everyone loves a new word. When Oxford announces its Word of the Year, I sometimes detect behind the buzz of expectation a pang of disappointment that the chosen ‘winner’ isn’t a brand new invention. The romantic allure of a mint-new coinage, the inspiration of a single moment in time, is hard to resist. The truth […]

Richard Holden, Online Editor for Oxford Dictionaries, discusses the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2013: selfie. Watch the video below to discover why this word was chosen, what the earliest known usage of ‘selfie’ is, and which related terms have already been created. Want to find out more? Explore the rise of ‘selfie’ […]

Earlier today, we announced that the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2013 is ‘selfie’. You can learn more about the rise of ‘selfie’ with our infographic. But what about the runners-up? Below we take a closer look at the words on the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 shortlist, from ‘bedroom tax’ […]

Earlier today we announced that the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2013 is ‘selfie’. Explore the infographic below to learn more about this year’s Word of the Year and track its evolution from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph. Click on the image below to see a larger […]

It’s that time of the year again. With a fanfare and a drum roll, it’s time to announce the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year. The votes have been counted and verified and I can exclusively reveal that the winner is…. selfie A picture can paint a thousand words The decision was unanimous this year, […]

An extract from the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins As well as education, wine, roads, under-floor heating, and the fresh water system, the Romans gave us words and phrases. Far from being a dead language, Latin is alive and well, and may be found in a sentence near you. English is full of words of […]